Second-ranked UVA had 36 points at halftime. Wake Forest had 34. At the end of the game.
You knew about the Pack-Line defense. Wednesday night in Winston-Salem, you had the chance to get reacquainted with the deathly efficient UVA offense.
Virginia (26-1, 14-1 ACC) scored 36 points on 30 possessions in the first half, 1.20 points per possession, and before Malcolm Brogdon subbed out with 7:55 to go, with UVA up 61-23, the Cavs had scored 61 points on 50 possessions, 1.22 points per possession.
That’s Wisconsin-level, Duke-level efficiency. That’s pre-Justin Anderson Virginia efficiency.
How it was done: penetration. With starting point guard London Perrantes joining Anderson on the bench for the game, after suffering a mild concussion in the 51-41 win over Florida State on Sunday, coach Tony Bennett had to go with a committee to eat up the minutes, starting Marial Shayok and subbing in Devon Hall, who played a combined 52 minutes on the night.
Shayok and Hall attacked the lane with a passion, shaking up what had been a plodding Virginia offense of late that seemed content to pass the ball around the perimeter.
The attacking style worked. Virginia had a 22-8 advantage scoring in the paint in the first half, and the penetration opened up looks on the perimeter, allowing UVA to go 4-for-7 from three-point range.
For the game, Virginia outscored Wake 46-14 in the paint.
And the young’uns did more than their share: Hall finished with nine points on 3-of-4 shooting, including a three, and Shayok had seven on 3-of-8 shooting, and Shayok also had a three.
Even with the garbage-time minutes bringing down the final numbers, Virginia averaged 1.129 points per possession in the final numbers. In the previous five games after Anderson went down late in the first half of the win over Louisville on Feb. 7, Virginia had scored .942 points per possession.
Sorry, America, but the boring stuff is yesterday’s news.
– Column by Chris Graham
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